Screamfest 2026 Unveils First Wave With ‘The Night Driver,’ ‘Slay,’ ‘Serena’ and More
Screamfest Unveils First Wave of 2026 Lineup, Sets ‘The Night Driver’ as Opening Night World Premiere
Screamfest Horror Film Festival has unveiled the first wave of its 2026 program, setting the stage for the 26th edition of the Los Angeles genre festival with a slate of world, North American and U.S. premieres alongside repertory screenings and new industry programming.
The festival runs Oct. 6-15 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and will open with the world premiere of Jeremy Weiss’ The Night Driver, a thriller starring Josh Lucas, Alyssa Milano and David Arquette.
Written by John Cork, The Night Driver follows traveling salesman Hurdis Matheson, whose late-night drive takes a violent turn after he accidentally strikes a stranger on an isolated highway. After agreeing to transport the injured man to a hospital, Hurdis discovers there is considerably more to his passenger than he initially realized.
When Hurdis subsequently disappears, his wife turns to an old friend, Detective Hank Granger, for help. The search becomes more complicated when the FBI connects Hurdis to a series of homicides across the country.
Weiss’ film leads an initial Screamfest lineup featuring eight world premieres, six North American premieres, one U.S. premiere and three West Coast premieres.
Among the world premieres is Jeffrey Scott Collins’ The Caged, starring Tamzin Merchant, Edmund Kingsley, Raffiella Chapman and Callen Carter. Inspired by true events, the film follows a British family that moves into an Essex cottage in 1988 and encounters a dark presence connected to the property’s history as a medieval prison where women accused of witchcraft were held and executed. Saban Films is distributing the feature.
Brian Gottlieb’s Grow will also make its world premiere. Starring Peter Vack, Annet Mahendru, Janis Dardaris and Phillip Tabor, the film combines horror, dark comedy and surrealism in what the festival describes as a psychosexual story centered on bodily autonomy and an unexpected pregnancy.
Ron Krauss’ Wounds stars Jack Kilmer and Paris Jackson. Kilmer plays Caleb, a special effects makeup artist whose struggle to create convincing practical effects takes a disturbing turn after he witnesses a murder and becomes increasingly consumed by recreating what he saw.
Gabriela Ledesma’s The Exit State is another world premiere, following a group attempting to escape an authoritarian collapse in America who discover that the safe house they have entered may provide anything but safety. Callie Schuttera, Josh George, Sharon Lawrence and Clayton Farris are among the cast.
Uruguayan filmmaker Martin Florio brings Insecta, in which a horror novelist returns to an isolated farm as her father is dying and encounters a mysterious caretaker who may have connections to a monstrous insect that haunted her childhood imagination.
Andres Beltran’s Postmortem follows a grieving medical forensic investigator who becomes convinced that a case may offer a way to bring her deceased husband back to life. Allegra Leguizamo, Julio Cedillo, Tony Revolori and Andres Londono star.
David Harari’s Processing Charlie rounds out another portion of the world-premiere slate. The film follows a man dealing with a fractured marriage who allows a long-lost cousin into his home, only to discover increasingly disturbing aspects of his relative’s behavior.
Screamfest will also host the North American premiere of Slay, directed by Kyra Gardner and written by Gardner and Jimmi Simpson. Zoey Luna stars as Chloe Cruz, a teenage influencer whose carefully constructed public identity begins collapsing after a friend is murdered. Chloe and her friends retreat to a secluded disco-themed cabin, where another threat emerges.
The ensemble includes Aya Cash, Shawnee Smith, Malina Pauli-Weissman, Sean Giambrone, Beck Nolan, Talia Jackson, Reise Alexander, Ruby McCollister, River Alexander, Isidora Goreshter, Andrew Bowser and Simpson.
Abner Pastoll’s South Korean and U.K. production Nervous also receives its North American premiere. Sarah Bolger stars alongside Asung Ko and Sungsoo Yune in the story of a woman who discovers a silent vinyl record in her new home before gradually losing the ability to hear her husband’s voice.
Joby Stephens’ Abandoned follows two urban explorers who enter a derelict facility while chasing material for a viral video, only to discover evidence of sinister experiments and a history that begins manifesting around them.
Ashley Cahill’s Once Upon a Time in a Horror Movie plays with the rules of the slasher genre as a group of friends enters an immersive experience designed to place them inside an ’80s horror movie. The entertainment turns considerably more dangerous when the boundary between the fabricated slasher and reality begins disappearing.
Nick Psinakis’ Valley View Motel moves the action back to 1977. The neon-noir thriller follows two small-time criminals fleeing a botched diamond heist who seek shelter at a remote Pennsylvania motel, only to discover another threat waiting for them.
Carles Torrens’ Apocalypse Z: A New World receives its U.S. premiere. Based on Manel Loureiro’s novels, the Spanish production takes place after the Canary Islands have become Europe’s last refuge following the spread of the TSJ virus. A mission to the mainland for essential supplies leaves its participants caught between infected hordes and conflicting loyalties.
Rob Alicea’s Serena arrives for its West Coast premiere with Andi Matichak, Steven Strait and Ashleigh Murray leading the cast. Strait plays struggling musician Chris Sadowski, who agrees to beta-test an experimental AI assistant named Serena as his personal and financial life deteriorates. The screen-based thriller follows the increasingly controlling relationship between Chris and the technology operating across his computer.
The first wave also includes Luis Bujeau, Sabine Crossen and Jeremy Guetta’s psychological thriller Nine and Kaylin Allshouse’s Still Ohio, a time-loop horror film following four college-age travelers who repeatedly find themselves arriving at the same Ohio gas station.
Screamfest is also adding several events beyond its competitive features.
Cinematographer Peter Deming, ASC, will receive the festival’s Career Achievement Award. Deming’s genre work stretches across more than three decades and includes Evil Dead II, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Drag Me to Hell, The Cabin in the Woods and The Menu, along with his collaborations with David Lynch on Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks.
Michael Dougherty will return to the festival for a special screening of Trick ’r Treat. The event begins with a new 4K restoration of Dougherty’s Season’s Greetings, which won Best Animated Short at Screamfest in 2003 and introduced audiences to Sam before the character appeared in Trick ’r Treat.
Dougherty will participate in a Q&A following the screening. Fifty randomly selected attendees will also receive copies of Legendary Comics’ Trick ’r Treat: Witching Hours and access to a Screamfest Lounge signing with Dougherty and members of the book’s creative team.
Screamfest is introducing another wrinkle to the theatrical experience through a partnership with ScareScore. The technology measures biometric reactions from participating moviegoers and converts the data into personalized scores. ScareScore will be available across most festival features, with one film receiving an award based on the highest biometric scare response recorded during the festival.
Tubi will spotlight its new original anthology series Bite Size Terror, a collection of short-form horror stories spanning supernatural horror, body horror, monsters, dark comedy and psychological thrillers. The series comes from executive producer Peter Rice and GJMD Studio and will be housed within Tubi’s Terror on Tubi hub.
The 2026 festival is also expanding its professional programming with two Industry Days on Oct. 7 and 8, spearheaded by Yulissa Morales and Ahbra Perry. The sessions are designed to bring filmmakers together with producers, distributors, sales representatives and executives for discussions covering the business and craft of independent genre filmmaking.
Among the scheduled conversations is a panel with filmmaker Chris Marrs Piliero and Magenta Light Studios Head of Digital Film Distribution Bill Vergos examining packaging, financing, distribution and marketing. Their discussion will use Piliero’s Appofeniacs, which screened at Screamfest 2025 ahead of its planned Oct. 2, 2026 theatrical release, as part of the conversation.
The festival will extend beyond the TCL Chinese Theatre through a partnership with Ovation Hollywood for a free outdoor screening of Ivan Reitman’s 1984 Ghostbusters.
Screamfest winners for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Short will also receive four-day plus sessions badges for the 2026 American Film Market, courtesy of the Independent Film & Television Alliance. AFM runs Nov. 11-14 in Los Angeles.
Now entering its 26th year, Screamfest has long positioned itself as a discovery platform for independent genre filmmaking. Recent festival selections cited by Screamfest include Ick, Cold Wallet, In Our Blood and Appofeniacs, all of which subsequently secured distribution.
With The Night Driver opening the festival and films ranging from slashers and supernatural horror to AI paranoia, infected survival stories and practical-effects nightmares already announced, the first wave gives Screamfest a broad genre foundation before the remainder of its 2026 program is revealed.
Screamfest Horror Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15, 2026, at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Festival badges are currently on sale, with individual tickets expected to follow.
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